RETURN TO OZ

We had two minor hassles at Schiphol:
one was the inconvenience of having to push the bike box in front
of us in the ticketing queue, just to have it weighed, then having
to take it round to the "odd sized luggage" desk. If
they had scales at the "odd sized luggage" desk, you
could take your bike there first, have the weight printed on a
slip of paper, then take the information to the ticketing desk.
Does KLM have a suggestion box ;-)

The second hiccup was caused by the
X-ray machine finding unfamiliar metal objects in Denis' carry-on
pannier. He suggested it could be the pump, or the thermos, but
the attendant kept digging. She ended up pulling everything out,
and right down the bottom were ... 2 Dutch bicycle locks we had
bought in Weesp - dangerous weapons indeed!

The flight home was quite fast compared
with the flight over - only 20 1/2 hours! It's still a very long
way, especially when you can't get to sleep. We reached Sydney
on Monday 5 May at 15.00 Australian Eastern Standard time (8 hours
ahead of Amsterdam time), then landed at Canberra airport at 18.05
after a 40 minute flight in the small commuter 'plane.
It's funny, the only time I felt homesick was
when I saw the typical pink and green Australian sunset on the flight
between Sydney and Canberra!

Our two daughters and my sister were
there to meet us. It was good to be back, safe and sound, but
it meant the adventure was over ... 'til next time. I could really
get used to this travel business!!